diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 6367764..e114a9b 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ AC_INIT([libtpl], [1.4], [tdh@tkhanson.net])
 AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR(src/tpl.c)
 AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR(config)
 AC_CONFIG_HEADERS(config/config.h)
-AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE
+AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([foreign])
 AC_PROG_CC
 dnl next 4 lines are a hack to avoid libtool's
 dnl needless checks for C++ and Fortran compilers